And they say some of the most proud people are academians. It appears that UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Carlos Santiago is not above the weakness of hubris, and is setting himself up for a big fall.
Santiago wants to make a name for himself by building all sorts of new schools in order to make UW-Milwaukee even more renowned and an even bigger asset to the community. These are commendable goals and we should all support him in this ambition.
Unfortunately, Santiago is apparently hoping to use the school’s expansions as bullet points on his resume as he shops himself around the country for a new job. And in this sense, Santiago has been ignoring and being openly dismissive of his faculty, his students and of the community as a whole. He does this because these people are opposing, in greater and greater numbers, some of his poorly thought through plans.
Santiago wants to build a new freshwater school, which most people are in support of. Unfortunately, the placement for this school is becoming increasingly contentious. First, Santiago wanted to put the school on the land where the old Pieces of Eight restaurant stands. Due to a high level of opposition, he was forced to withdraw that plan.
Now he wants to build it at the Reed Street Yards. Today, it was reported that his faculty absolutely rejected that plan, but that Santiago doesn’t care:
The school’s faculty and scientists unanimously approved a resolution that recommends UWM either improve the current site of the Great Lakes WATER Institute, which overlooks the harbor at 600 E. Greenfield Ave., or propose an alternative site on the harbor, to house the school.
The main problem with Reed Street Yards, on the Menomonee River canal south of the Harley-Davidson Museum, is “serious obstructions” to research vessels from drawbridge operations and barge traffic, the resolution says.
The resolution was sent to UWM Chancellor Carlos Santiago, who says Reed Street Yards might be a better site.
We also see the same kind of issue that we’ve been fighting with Santiago wanting to build an engineering school all the way across the county from the campus, even though the only people that want it there are those that would make an obscene profit.
But it appears that UW-Milwaukee might be having problems raising the money after one of their sponsors, Michael Cudahy pulled out his support. They’ve had to ask for more time before making their first payment to Milwaukee County:
University officials say they still plan to develop the site despite the loss of funding they had expected to receive for the project from retired business executive Michael Cudahy.
Gilbert said the delay has nothing to do with the funding issue. He said UWM is close to replacing the funds the university had expected to obtain from Cudahy.
“It’s not in the bank,” Gilbert told me. “But we think we have a coalition coming together to do this.”
James Rowen, renowned blogger and environmentalist, thinks the sale is about to fall through:
Imagine you are selling a lot to a buyer who wants it for his dream house – - big house! – - and then the buyer comes to you and says he wants several more months to get you your money – - after his rich uncle who was going to put up a lot of the construction cost decided against it.In the worst economy since the Great Depression.And your lot site is really too far from the rest of the buyer’s business, and the neighbors want to set up all sorts of conditions on the lot because it’s in an environmentally sensitive setting.You’d know where the deal was headed.